Trekking, rafting and biking = sore legs

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Just finished the 2 day hill tribe trek and man are our legs sore.

We headed off, squished up in the back of a ute with our fellow trekkers, towards the hills north of Chiang Mai. Stopped off at the obligatory Orchid Farm and Snake Farm along the way. Orchid farm was just what you would think, a whole bunch of orchids growing. Whereas the snake farm was pretty crazy. There were heaps of enormous snakes in cages, including a King Cobra, as we walked around checking them out some of the guys who worked there sneaked up behind the girls and tickled there legs with a stick... yes Kelly squealed. loudly. Then we went into the show, some crazy dude called Snake Man took out 2 cobras and danced around whilst they tried to bite him, he even lent down and kissed them on their heads. The cobras still had their poison in them and he brought it around to show everyone, freakingout a poor English guy by thrusting the cobra towards his crotch, glad that didn't go wrong. The burmese python was pretty freaky, he let it go swimming in this pool in the ground, dirty water so you couldnt see where it went.. Snake Man jumps in the water and thrashes around a bit, and comes up with the python wrapped around his neck squeezing him, the guy seriously went blue. Overall we weren't too sure about the way they treated the snakes, basically threatening them so that they attacked for entertainment, and it freaked us out a bit as we trekked through jungle and rivers.

So onwards to the walk, first day was 3 hours of up, up, up. Thought it would never end. We saw an elephant crashing through the jungle, and some beautiful views. It was amazing to see the tribes huts on the tops of the hills when we were nearly there, which was just as it started to pour down so we arrived soaking. As we arrived some kids had stripped to their underwear to play in the rain, the little guys playfighting as Muay Thai boxers and slipping around, gorgeous.
Once in our hill tribe hut with a nice cosy room for the 13 of us, we had a traditional dinner and sat around the indoor fire and had a good old fashioned sing along with a guitar and an empty bottle for the drums.
Thankfully didnt have to pull out the haka, but our Thai guides did a great rendition of it slapping their legs and poking out their tongues.

The next morning the trekking was all downhill to a beautiful waterfall, and then along to Elephant Camp. The elephant we rode seemed a little naughty, and very hungry.. he kept straying from the path and eating everything in sight. Our mahout (elephant trainer guy) jumped off and let Andrew ride on the neck. After lunch it was onwards to white water rafting which was awesome and only terrifying at one point where i thought we were gonna tip over. All in all a great 2 days.

Our last day in Chiang Mai was mountain biking day. Andrew had a great time, biking for 4 hours down a mountain in a National Park and having a lakeside lunch at the end. The group we did it with was fantastic, really safety conscious hence the gear which made us look like we were about to play grid iron. Unfortunately Kelly didn't take to mountain biking in the pouring rain quite so well...Kelly's comment: I will officially never mountain bike again, I tried to like it but to quote the instructor who let me stop biking and get in the truck "Get into the car, mountain biking is not for you". This wouldn't have been so bad had the group not included an over 50's Scottish grandmother who despite a few epic tumbles completed the whole thing. Shame.

So thus ends the travels in Chiang Mai... on to the islands to soak up the sun, and rest our weary legs.

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